First Day of School...First Grade!

Here's the big first-grader on her first day of school on August 19th.

Here's the sisters posing together. Chloe missed her big sister quite a bit during the first few days back to school.

Our Ten Year Anniversary!!

We celebrated our anniversary a bit differently this year...

As we were trying desperately to find an available babysitter, Hannah came up with a plan:
She offered to serve us an anniversary dinner here at home!

She helped plan and shop for the meal, and she totally directed the decorating of the
"Spence Mexcian Rings" Restaurant, complete with hostess stand and reservation book. :-)

She decided we could eat at the "bistro" table (brought inside from the back porch and placed in the sunny foyer). She opted for red balloons hanging from the light fixture, placemats, the "special" drinking glasses, candles---and even fresh flowers picked by hand from our backyard (with Chloe's help). She even gathered up all of the framed "mommy-daddy" pictures from around the house and displayed them on a separate bench near the table. As a final touch, she directed mommy to hang curtains in the doorway leading to the foyer.

That afternoon, she called daddy at work and "confirmed his reservation"
for 5:30 at the "restaurant."

Hannah was quite the little waitress. She fixed our plates and drinks (sweet tea for daddy, and water with extra lemon for mommy), refilled our drinks, and offered seconds. She even grabbed the camera and took pictures for us!

Chloe enjoyed the evening too! She got a kick out of eating in the foyer while sitting on the window sill and using the piano bench as her table. ;-)

We ended the day with a family walk around the block. It was definitely
a fun and memorable evening!

It's hard to believe we've been married for a decade! Time sure flies when you're having fun...

"The Best Day Ever..." by Hannah (as dictated to Mommy)

Sea World 2009

This is Shamu. He has a girl trainer on top of his nose. He is a nice killer whale. You should see Shamu at Sea World. You could go to his shows (there's 4 each day). Shamu can jump to touch the ball. He can do whatever they tell him. He can get up on dry land, spin his tail, and spin his body. He spins and spins and spins. If you sit up close to the tank, Shamu will splash you with his tail with lots of water. I think you should sit up close to the tank, becuase the water will cool you off, because it is nice and cold. That's it for my Shamu story...


This is the baby dolphin at Sea World. This is all true. I hope you believe it. I got to feed him fresh new fish and I got to feel his skin. They said his tank was 100ft long. The baby dolphin feels soft and warm and cozy. He is really cute. That's it for my dolphin story...



This is the front gate of Sea World. You need to go online to SeaWorld.com, and you can get tickets to go inside Sea World---or you can get your tickets from the front gate. I would get my tickets online so I wouldn't have to wait in line a long time. You have to have tickets to get through the front gate. That's it for my Sea World adventure. I hope you go there sometime...